In short
No. Israel facilitates massive amounts of humanitarian aid to Gaza every single day — food, water, medicine, fuel, and shelter supplies — even as Hamas continues to attack Israeli civilians and hold hostages.
The Myth of “Starving Gaza”
For the past two years, anti-Israel activists have accused Israel of using hunger as a weapon, claiming it blocks food and medicine to “collectively punish” Gazans. But that story collapses under the facts.
Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre — when terrorists invaded Israel, murdered 1,200 civilians, and kidnapped more than 250 people Israel has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep aid flowing into Gaza, even while fighting the same terrorists who started the war. Israel is the first country to provide direct humanitarian aid to their enemy.
Every shipment is coordinated through Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and monitored by international agencies.
Even UNRWA’s top official, Philippe Lazzarini, now admits there was no famine. After the October 2025 ceasefire went into effect, he said his agency had “enough food to feed the entire population for the next three months.”
The accusation that Israel “starves Gaza” is not humanitarian concern — it’s political theater.
What’s Really Happening: Israel Sends Aid, Hamas Steals It
Israel has never blocked humanitarian aid. It inspects shipments at the Kerem Shalom and Nitzana crossings to keep weapons and explosives out, then transfers them to U.N. and Red Crescent agencies for civilian distribution.
The bottleneck isn’t at the border — it’s inside Gaza. The U.N. has failed to distribute aid at the pace Israel processes it, while Hamas hijacks, hoards, and resells supplies meant for civilians.
According to a 2024 report, since the beginning of the war:
- Over 15,000 trucks carrying 280,000 tons of aid entered Gaza since the war began.
- On March 3, 2024, Israel cleared 277 trucks, but the U.N. distributed only 131 to civilians.
- Food deliveries have increased by more than 50% since before the war.
- Four tankers of cooking oil and 310 gas tanks enter Gaza daily.
- The World Food Programme runs 15 bakeries baking 2 million loaves of bread a day.
Israel even greenlighted airdrops from Jordan, France, and the U.S., and worked with Egypt and the UAE on mobile desalination plants providing clean water for 150,000 people.
Why the “Aid Blockade” Claim Is a Lie
The idea that Israel blocks aid isn’t a misunderstanding — it’s a propaganda weapon.
Hamas and its supporters deliberately manipulate humanitarian suffering to turn public opinion against Israel. The group steals up to 90% of aid, hoarding it for its fighters or selling it on the black market. Civilians of Gaza are left waiting for food that may never come. The American Jewish Committee (AJC) confirmed that Hamas’s theft, not Israel’s policy, is what starves Gaza’s civilians. And Ynet journalists visiting the Strip in May 2025 found open markets and stocked food stalls, with residents joking they were “tired of the menu.”
Israel’s behavior is unparalleled in modern warfare: a nation under attack still feeding its enemy’s population.
“UN reports knowingly created a distorted picture of the situation.”
— Tammy Caner, INSS Researcher
The Real Problem: Hamas, Not Israel
Hamas is the reason life in Gaza is unbearable. It began the war, hides weapons in schools and hospitals, and turns aid convoys into military assets.On October 7, Hamas destroyed nine of ten power lines bringing electricity from Israel and attacked Israel’s water pipes, cutting its own people off from water and power. Since then, Israel has worked to repair those systems:
As former Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “This war is over tomorrow if Hamas decided that it would stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender.”
Quotes
“We have enough to provide food for the entire population for the coming three months.”
— Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, October 2025
“Israel continues to facilitate the entry of hundreds of aid trucks daily into Gaza despite Hamas aggression and rocket fire.” – COGAT Official Statement, Oct 9 2025:
“Today it is possible to provide three times the amount of humanitarian aid to Gaza if the U.N. — instead of complaining all day — would do its job.”
— Isaac Herzog, President of Israel
The Takeaway
Israel facilitates aid. Hamas weaponizes it.
There was never famine in Gaza – only deception, incompetence, and theft by the very terrorists who started the war.
Sources
- UNRWA, “Ceasefire Statement,” Oct. 10, 2025
- COGAT, “Humanitarian Coordination in Gaza,” Oct. 9, 2025
- AIPAC, “Israel Facilitates Humanitarian Aid to Gaza,” May 20, 2024
- INSS, “UN Reports on Hunger in Gaza,” July 24, 2024
- AJC, “Humanitarian Aid in Gaza: What’s Really Happening,” Aug. 28, 2025
- Ynet, “חמאס הולך על חבל דק,” May 18, 2025
